Our Imprints

Birlinn

The Birlinn imprint publishes Scottish and general UK interest books, from biography to history, military to politics, and Scottish Gaelic. The name comes from the old Norse word ‘birlinn’, meaning a long boat or small galley used especially in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland in the Middle Ages

What’s new from Birlinn?

There are strange relics hidden across Scotland’s landscape: forgotten places that are touchstones to incredible stories and past lives which still resonate today. Yet why are so many of these ‘wild histories’ unnoticed and overlooked? And…

Scotland’s plants define its landscape – from the heather moorlands of its iconic habitats to the weeds and a garden plants of its towns and cities. Plants have shaped the country’s domestic economy and culture over centuries, providing…

This calendar features distinctive full-colour paintings by one of Scotland’s best-loved authors and artists and is a wonderful celebration of the extraordinary natural beauty of the Hebrides throughout the seasons. Mairi Hedderwick’s drawings,…

This hardback desk diary is illustrated throughout with Mairi Hedderwick’s beautiful sketches of the Hebrides through the seasons. Featuring distinctive full-colour paintings by one of Scotland’s best-loved authors and artists, this exquisite…

This hardback pocket diary is illustrated throughout with Mairi Hedderwick’s beautiful sketches of the Hebrides through the seasons. Featuring distinctive full-colour paintings by one of Scotland’s best-loved authors and artists, this exquisite…

Following the continued success of the 2020 Scottish Maps Calendar, Birlinn is once again proud to collaborate with the National Library of Scotland.
This new calendar features more of the most beautiful maps of Scotland ever made. From the very…

Scottish baking is famous the world over. In this book, Liz Ashworth introduces a whole range of recipes arranged by theme – Bannocks, Breads and Scones; Biscuits; Tarts and Traybakes; and Cakes and Wee Fancies.
From bannocks to butteries, seaweed…

Acclaimed cookery writer Claire Macdonald turns her attention to food for free in this selection of recipes using a huge variety of produce that can be found growing wild in fields, forests, hedgerows and along the seashore.
Featuring blackcurrants,…

In April 1820, a series of dramatic events exploded around Glasgow, central Scotland and Ayrshire. Demanding political reform and better living and working conditions, 60,000 weavers and other workers went on strike. Revolution was in the air.
It…

Desperate to connect with his native Galloway, Patrick Laurie plunges into work on his family farm in the hills of southwest Scotland. Investing in the oldest and most traditional breeds of Galloway cattle, the Riggit Galloway, he begins to discover…

Writing well over a thousand years ago, the Celtic saints and their followers who penned them reflected not just the cares and concerns of their own times, but also gave voice to the universal human experience – the hopes, fears, joys and…

They may be coated in layers of myth and pious anecdote but dig deep enough and the pioneering leaders of Celtic Christianity are revealed as reassuringly human individuals, responding to their faith by deliberately living on the edges of…

The Declaration of Arbroath, 6 April, 1320, is one of the most remarkable documents to have been produced anywhere in medieval Europe. Signed by 51 Scottish nobles, it confirms Scotland’s status as an independent sovereign state with the right to…

Scotland’s history has been told many times, but never exclusively by its women. This book takes a unique perspective on dramatic national events as well as ordinary life, as experienced by women down the centuries. From the saintly but severe…

Coming soon

The origins of the Scottish clans go back over a thousand years, and for centuries these extended networks of families dominated life in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. The warriors of the clan, fiercely loyal to each other and to their chief,…

An essential read for fans of Outlander
During the first half of the eighteenth century, Bonnie Prince Charlie and his diehard supporters – the Jacobites – almost changed the course of British history. Their attempts to drive out the house of…

Ardnish, the Highlands of Scotland, 1944. On his deathbed, Donald John Gillies sends for a priest to hear his last confession. During his 85 years he has witnessed much – world wars, the loss of family through death and emigration, and the daily…

In this profound new book, Alastair McIntosh explores the science, psychology and spirituality of climate change. He summarises the up-to-date science and shows the damage caused both by climate-change denial as well as exaggeration. In outlining…

This is a new edition of the bestselling guide to this increasingly popular pursuit. Scotland has the best-maintained records and facilities of any country in the world for undertaking family research, and now that the National Archives of Scotland…

In 1971 Alec Crawford is determined to make his fortune from ship salvage. Early attempts lead nowhere until he teams up with a new partner, Simon Martin. Diving in Hebridean waters, they explore remains of the Spanish Armada, and the wreck of the…

‘It may perhaps interest you if I mention a few figures in connexion with the construction of the bridge. Its extreme length, including the approach viaduct, is 2,765 yards, one and one-fifth of a mile, and the actual length of the cantilever…

From the Indian Mutiny to the London Blitz, offering a ‘nice cup of tea’ has been a stock British response to a crisis. But tea itself has a dramatic, and often violent, history. That history is inextricably interwoven with the story of…

Fourteen centuries ago, Irish saints brought the Word of God to the Hebrides and Scotland’s Atlantic shore. These ‘white martyrs’ sought solitude, remoteness, even harshness, in places apart from the world where they could fast, pray and move…

In 1801, some five years after Robert Burns’ death, nine of his friends sat down to dinner in what is now known as Burns Cottage in Alloway to celebrate his extraordinary life and to give thanks for his friendship. Over the years the informal…

A unique Scottish colouring book suitable for adults as well as children featuring 23 of the festival city’s most iconic places, including: Edinburgh Castle * Victoria Street * Grassmarket * St Giles * National Museum of Scotland * The Mound…

We think you might like: Alistair Moffat

In an epic narrative, sometimes moving, sometimes astonishing, always revealing, Moffat writes an entirely new history of Britain. Instead of the usual parade of the usual suspects – kings, queens, saints, warriors and the notorious – this is a…

From the Ice Age to the recent Scottish Referendum, historian and author Alistair Moffat explores the history of the Scottish nation. As well as focusing on key moments in the nation’s history such as the Battle of Bannockburn and the Jacobite…

As 8,000 Scottish soldiers, most of them spearmen, faced 18,000 English infantrymen, archers and mounted knights in June 1314 near the Bannock Burn, many would have thought that the result a foregone conclusion. But two days later, the English were…

Hadrian’s Wall is the largest, most spectacular and one of the most enigmatic historical monument in Britain. Nothing else approaches its vast scale: a land wall running 73 miles from east to west and a sea wall stretching at least 26 miles down…

History has always mattered to Scots, and rarely more so than now at the outset of a new century, with a new census appearing in 2011 and after more than ten years of a new parliament. An almost limitless archive of our history lies hidden inside…